stellionate

English

Etymology

From Latin stellionatus (“cozenage, trickery”), from stellio (“a newt, a crafty, knavish person”).

Noun

stellionate (plural stellionates)

  1. (law, Scotland, Ancient Rome) Any fraud not distinguished by a more special name; chiefly applied to sales of the same property to two different persons, or selling that for one's own which belongs to another, etc.
    • 1754, John Erskine of Carnock, Principles of the Law of Scotland:
      The crime of stellionate […] includes every fraud which is not distinguished by a special name; but it is chiefly applied to conveyances of the same numerical right granted by the proprietor to different disponees

References
  • stellionate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
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